Berkeley Anarchist Study Grouphttp://sfbay-anarchists.org
Updates from the study groupWed, 14 Mar 2018 20:38:19 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4readings for the next three weeks!!! (unless it changes)http://sfbay-anarchists.org/readings-for-the-next-three-weeks-unless-it-changes/
http://sfbay-anarchists.org/readings-for-the-next-three-weeks-unless-it-changes/#respondWed, 14 Mar 2018 20:38:19 +0000http://sfbay-anarchists.org/?p=1733this coming week we’re reading this story from anarchistnews, by david graeber and some other anthro, how to change the course of human history

the following week (and it’s long, so you might want to get a head start on it) we’ll read this piece by sahlins

and the plan is that the following week we’ll read an excerpt from now, the newish book from the invisible committee (in actual hard copy!).

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http://sfbay-anarchists.org/reading-for-3-13/#commentsThu, 08 Mar 2018 03:35:06 +0000http://sfbay-anarchists.org/?p=1731we’re reading the rest of desert.
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http://sfbay-anarchists.org/reading-for-37/#commentsWed, 28 Feb 2018 18:22:31 +0000http://sfbay-anarchists.org/?p=1725poked with the question of anti-civ theory that considers the collapse and immediate aftermath, we’re reading the first two chapters of desert. that is, “no global future” and “it’s later than we thought.”
aside from desert, there are definitely pieces on parts of likely collapse scenarios, but not from anarchists (as far as i know).
it also came up last night that people are trying to post comments here and can’t so i’m checking on how to fix that, because it’s terrible! i hear this has been fixed; yay!

i read an article years ago that talked about how just the decomposition of a lot of bodies concentrated in one place would be a toxic disaster on its own. i am not finding that kind of information, and maybe that’s not the sort of thing we’re trying to think about here anyway. but i’m interested in it.

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http://sfbay-anarchists.org/reading-for-227/#respondThu, 22 Feb 2018 00:47:52 +0000http://sfbay-anarchists.org/?p=1720amazing historian and translator shawn wilbur sends the following email, which requires me to make a decision, so i’m somewhat arbitrarily going with the first two, the intro and the garlic one (’cause YOU KNOW), and if folks are into it, we can always read the rest–we could have a month of fourier, semi-curated by shawn!
The obvious intro piece by Fourier, from my perspective at least, is “Note A” from “The Theory of Four Movements.” It’s very short, but explains how individuals will organize according to the passions in Harmony. There is a translation in the Cambridge edition, but I’ve made one that can be used freely.

what is brought out of people when they try to create utopias (or just, better systems)? A practical, practice-based way of thinking of what is truly human – so what is fourier saying about what is deeply human?

What does the penultimate paragraph say about our current system of capitalism?

relationship to bolo’bolo (limited size, based on some level of intentional/understanding of desire)

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http://sfbay-anarchists.org/reading-for-2-20/#respondWed, 14 Feb 2018 06:03:50 +0000http://sfbay-anarchists.org/?p=1717daniel will be doing a little intro to stirner, and we’re reading an article by alejandro on making stirner one’s own.
if you want to do extra reading, then this piece by jason mcquinn is a good addition.
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http://sfbay-anarchists.org/reading-for-213/#respondWed, 07 Feb 2018 06:04:54 +0000http://sfbay-anarchists.org/?p=1714chapters 2-6 of the same book. woo hoo berkman! cake!
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http://sfbay-anarchists.org/reading-for-2518/#respondFri, 02 Feb 2018 14:59:58 +0000http://sfbay-anarchists.org/?p=1712chapter one of prison memoirs of an anarchist, by Berkman.
the person i asked for suggestions about what to read loves the whole book, and so was less helpful than one might think. here are some of his comments “First, congratulations on making good reading choices. The reading group
should clap for each other for good choices, maybe eat cake.
As to the good bits, it is a long book, and there is a lot that can be left out if you aren’t trying to read the whole thing.
I would suggest that part 1 which focuses on the attentat is good context if there is none, but not necessary in entirety, chapters 4, 5 & 6 are pretty crucial to the narrative though.”
he emphasizes that there is a lot going on in this book, and no excerpt is going to get at the book in full, so… we shouldn’t think that we know what the book is about without reading the whole thing. so cute!
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http://sfbay-anarchists.org/reading-for-130/#respondWed, 24 Jan 2018 06:13:11 +0000http://sfbay-anarchists.org/?p=1706a story that will be introduced by aragorn! from anews, called gentrification part 3, the anarchist

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http://sfbay-anarchists.org/reading-for-1-23/#respondThu, 18 Jan 2018 05:25:44 +0000http://sfbay-anarchists.org/?p=1698clastres! and maybe anthropology for a couple weeks. we will decide. for this week we have have a chapter from archeology of violence, and one from society against the state.
other authors who were floated for future readings were graeber (sigh) and james c scott.
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http://sfbay-anarchists.org/reading-for-11618/#respondThu, 11 Jan 2018 01:39:24 +0000http://sfbay-anarchists.org/?p=1692the stanford experiment is a notorious example of how prone people are to losing their shit when put in positions of power/lack-of-power.

Jack’s choice for the reading is here.
It’s Philip Zimbardo’s account of the experiment, who was the lead in the experiment. He’s caught a lot of criticism for both the experiment and his presentation of it… so it should be a good starting point for discussion.

Jack proposes the following questions:
What’s more surprising, how guards abused their power or how prisoners complied?
Is your life more like that of a prisoner, or a guard?
Do liberals, conservatives, socialists, etc. see themselves as prisoners or guards?

ps: the piece i mentioned about artificial intelligence and corporations is here.